A former Russian commander has ignited controversy with explosive claims of abuse, corruption, and growing unrest inside Putin's military. Is Russia facing a new Wagner-style mutiny, or is this another chapter in the Kremlin's information war? We examine Alexander Lunin's viral accusations, the Kremlin's response, reports of mistreatment within the Russian army, and what this could mean for Putin's grip on power, the war in Ukraine, and Russia's future. Subscribe for more military analysis and breaking geopolitical updates.
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Russian Army Mutiny Warning Video Goes Viral
02:33 - Russian Soldiers Backtrack on Military Mutiny Warning
05:01 - Putin Fears New Wagner 2.0 Military Rebellion
07:47 - Kremlin Arrests Russian Soldiers Following Mutiny Video
10:41 - Brutal Combat Conditions Inside Russian Army Ranks
14:16 - Is the Vladimir Putin Regime About to Collapse?
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#militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis
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SOURCES / ATTRIBUTIONS: https://pastebin.com/yfwN7rDc
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Russian Army Mutiny Warning Video Goes Viral
02:33 - Russian Soldiers Backtrack on Military Mutiny Warning
05:01 - Putin Fears New Wagner 2.0 Military Rebellion
07:47 - Kremlin Arrests Russian Soldiers Following Mutiny Video
10:41 - Brutal Combat Conditions Inside Russian Army Ranks
14:16 - Is the Vladimir Putin Regime About to Collapse?
Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMilitaryShow/join
#militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis
#themilitaryshow
SOURCES / ATTRIBUTIONS: https://pastebin.com/yfwN7rDc
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NewsTranscript
00:00The Russians are coming.
00:02Only this time, they're not coming for Ukraine.
00:04They're coming for Putin.
00:06In an explosive rant published on social media,
00:09a Russian military veteran has exposed Putin's army for what it really is.
00:14Abuse has been alleged.
00:16A call for mutiny rings out.
00:18Russian soldiers are now actively threatening Putin's rule as Wagner 2.0
00:22looks like it's on the horizon.
00:24The Kremlin's response has been rapid.
00:26But Putin's callous brutality has just been exposed
00:30as another shot to his power rings
00:32and the greatest threat to Russia increasingly seems to be Russia itself.
00:36In his explosive rant,
00:38a former Russian army reconnaissance squad commander named Alexander Lunin
00:41has laid out exactly what life in Putin's military really looks like.
00:46Once a member of the Sudoplato Volunteer Battalion,
00:49Lunin's expose took direct shots at Putin,
00:52his military and Kremlin leadership
00:55with claims that Russian soldiers are being tortured and abused by their commanders
00:59and that the orders they receive are often stupid, suicidal
01:03and seemingly designed to do nothing more than send more meat into the grinder.
01:07Lunin called for a direct meeting with Putin
01:10in which he would expose the real truth which no official will tell him.
01:14Usually this sort of thing would be swept under the rug by Russia.
01:18What's one disgruntled soldier in an army of millions after all?
01:21But Lunin didn't stop with exposing the Russian military in its abusive ways.
01:26Lunin said that if his meeting with Putin didn't happen,
01:29then Russia's leader faces what could be the complete death of his Ukraine invasion.
01:33A mutiny is coming, Lunin warned,
01:36and the only way to stop it is to get Putin to understand
01:38how his commanders treat their soldiers.
01:41If I do not arrive at the Kremlin in the near future
01:43and appear live on air alongside you,
01:46the army will turn its weapons against the Kremlin, Lunin declared.
01:49Amidst claims that he had met with high-ranking officials
01:52in the Russian defense ministry
01:54as well as members of the Russian security services.
01:57The implication seems to be clear.
01:59Lunin is warning Putin that he has an uprising on his hands
02:02and that it may well have support from members of the upper echelons
02:05of the Russian president's regime.
02:07This is not a bluff, Lunin warned as he concluded his message.
02:11There's no letting this message fly under the radar.
02:14And if the Kremlin still hoped to keep it all under wraps,
02:17those hopes were shattered within 24 hours of Lunin's message going live.
02:21That's how long it took for the ex-soldier's warning
02:23to garner a staggering 12 million views across social media platforms.
02:28There is no ignoring this one for Putin.
02:30The warning is out there, and many Russians have already seen it.
02:34However, the aftermath of the video going viral has been strange.
02:39On one hand, Lunin appears to have attempted to backtrack some of his comments.
02:43In the aftermath of his message gaining so much attention,
02:46he claimed that he wasn't actively looking to arrange or call for a coup,
02:50but was instead hoping to relay information about the real conditions
02:53that Russian soldiers suffer in their army.
02:55He also reiterated his claims that defense ministry and security service officials
03:00had encouraged him to raise these issues publicly.
03:02No evidence has been provided for his claim, Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty reports,
03:07but that's hardly surprising.
03:08No high-ranking official in either of these organizations is going to expose themselves
03:13by backing a message that shatters the illusion under which Putin so happily lives.
03:18Lunin's later comments also suggested that any rebellion would come quietly
03:22and that nobody would come to him to issue a warning.
03:25And on top of all of this, Lunin quickly withdrew his demand for a live audience with Putin,
03:29instead claiming that he wanted to make Russia's leader aware of the abuse and bribery
03:33that is happening inside his own military.
03:35An almost immediate contradiction.
03:38Perhaps Lunin, who formerly went under the name Alexander Postovalov,
03:42was starting to get scared.
03:43But amidst all of these contradictions, Lunin was doing something that would make it seem
03:47that he was very serious about his claims of an upcoming mutiny.
03:50He was actively putting in the work to back up his claims in the days after he sent his message.
03:56United24 media reports that he started gathering testimonies from other Russian servicemen
04:00about the abuse they had experienced, again with claims that he intended to share all of this with Putin.
04:07Lunin said there are thousands of such testimonies, many of which come with video confirmation of the abuses suffered.
04:14None were shared on social media.
04:16It appears Lunin wanted to save all of this for his direct meeting with Putin.
04:20It's also strange.
04:22There are threats of mutiny and claims of being prompted by high-ranking officials to deliver his message.
04:27Lunin even claimed to have the support of a representative of the authorities in the Voronezh region,
04:32though he could only name the person he spoke to as Denis,
04:35and claimed that he was the deputy governor for internal policy in Voronezh.
04:39The man who holds that position is actually named Dmitry Maslov, against Vonews reveals.
04:44It also seems that Lunin has either been led down the garden path by officials,
04:49who are using him to expose real issues in the Russian army,
04:52or he has broken down and no longer cares what happens to him, as long as somebody listens.
04:57Either way, a mutiny has been threatened.
04:59Putin has to pay attention.
05:01What Russia's leader will fear most from all of this is the prospect of Wagner 2.0 happening.
05:07Lunin's message comes around three years after an attempted coup that almost rocked the Kremlin to its very core.
05:12On June 24, 2023, Putin faced what still stands as the most direct challenge to his power
05:18in a quarter of a century of rule in Russia.
05:21The catalyst for that challenge was Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was the founder of the infamous Wagner Group of Mercenaries.
05:28Though not officially part of Russia's military, the Wagner Group seemed to be on Putin's side during the first year
05:33or so of the invasion,
05:35until it wasn't.
05:36The summer of 2023 saw Wagner take over the city of Rostov-on-Don,
05:41which Russia had used as one of the main staging grounds of its war a little under a year and
05:45a half earlier.
05:45Prigozhin organized what he called a March for Justice as Wagner fighters began a march from Rostov-on-Don toward
05:52Moscow.
05:53This wasn't a peaceful march.
05:55International Crisis Group reports that the Wagner Group shot down several Russian choppers and a fighter jet,
06:01leading to Putin branding the entire thing a betrayal.
06:04The mutiny ended the day after it began.
06:07Prigozhin's soldiers were within 200 kilometers of Moscow when the Wagner leader revealed
06:11they would divert to Belarus to engage in talks with that country's president, Alexander Lukashenko.
06:17A deal was struck, and the coup finished with little more than a whimper,
06:21as Russia once again put Wagner to work in Ukraine and elsewhere.
06:25As for Prigozhin, he didn't last much longer.
06:28The former Wagner leader wasn't incarcerated.
06:30Instead, two months after his march, Prigozhin died in a plane crash,
06:35alongside several senior members of his mercenary group.
06:38The timing appeared to be more than just coincidental,
06:41and rumors persist to this day that the Kremlin organized an assassination
06:44to shut the attempted coup down once and for all.
06:48Now, Lunin's viral message doesn't quite measure up to a full-blown march involving thousands of men,
06:54but there are parallels between the Wagner mutiny and Lunin's message.
06:57In Lunin's case, thousands have supposedly revealed evidence of the abuse
07:02that Lunin claims runs rampant in the Russian military.
07:05There are claims that guns will be pointed at the Kremlin,
07:08and a clear call to arms that might spark a Wagner 2.0 if they are left unchecked.
07:13And again we see a disgruntled fighter who has experienced the reality of the Russian war in Ukraine
07:18and decided to make a stand.
07:20That sort of thing doesn't happen in Putin's Russia.
07:23And the Kremlin's response to all of this exposes the Russian president's deepest fears
07:28that he will be yanked away from power by his own people.
07:32But before we get into that response,
07:33this is a quick reminder that you are watching The Military Show.
07:36We publish videos like this every day,
07:38so hit subscribe if you're getting new insight from our channel.
07:42Russia's response to Lunin and his threats seems to have come in stages.
07:47Initially, the Kremlin seemed to be dismissive of Lunin's video.
07:50One of Putin's favorite mouthpieces, Dmitry Peskov, commented on the video on June 26th, stating,
07:55We were told there was such a statement, but we haven't had a chance to read it yet.
07:59However, Peskov also claims that reports of Lunin's words had struck him as,
08:03Rather strange,
08:04but that officials would need to familiarize themselves with the video
08:07before they could pass any judgment.
08:09So a reserved response from the Kremlin,
08:11perhaps because Putin and his cronies knew how much traction the video had gained
08:14and were wary of jumping straight into action.
08:17The next update came from Lunin himself.
08:19A meeting had been arranged, though not with Putin himself.
08:23Rather, the call to meet came from Vitaly Borodin,
08:26who is a pro-Kremlin activist
08:27and the leader of a group named the
08:29Federal Project for Security and Anti-Corruption.
08:32Though not officially affiliated with the Kremlin,
08:35the group has a track record of filing denunciations against public figures
08:38as part of Putin's so-called attempts to curb corruption in the Russian ranks.
08:43Vitaly Borodin contacted me.
08:44They invited me to Moscow to voice my concerns,
08:47all the issues that had accumulated,
08:49Lunin claimed.
08:50For a moment there,
08:51it looked like we might get the expose that would lead to the mutiny,
08:53but the Kremlin put a stop to all of them.
08:56On June 28th,
08:57DW broke the news that Lunin had suffered the fate
08:59that many would have assumed as soon as he went viral.
09:02He'd been arrested, supposedly, for 11 days.
09:05As with so much of this story,
09:07the reports are somewhat confusing and contradictory.
09:09Lunin's wife, Tatiana,
09:10has told the My Life Telegram channel
09:13that Lunin was planning to head to Moscow by car
09:15after receiving Borodin's invitation.
09:18Those preparations began on June 26th,
09:20but Lunin never got the chance to get far in his journey.
09:23During the night,
09:23people who claimed to be police officers
09:25arrived in the village of Lizinovka in Voronezh,
09:28looking for Lunin.
09:28They found him as Tatiana looked after their children at home.
09:32Tatiana claims to have heard from her husband
09:34and says that he's alive and well
09:36and has asked for no more videos or information
09:38about his situation to be published on social media.
09:41So, Lunin is in custody.
09:44Lunin had started his own version of the Wagner March,
09:47alone and in his car,
09:48on the way to meet a man who claimed
09:49that he would help Lunin to publicize
09:51all of the evidence of abuse that he has gathered.
09:53Was it a trap?
09:54Did the Kremlin use Borodin's promises of a meeting
09:57to lure Lunin away from his family
09:59so he could be arrested?
10:00Or did the Kremlin know that,
10:01allowing Borodin to platform Lunin,
10:03potentially exposing the abuse that Lunin claimed,
10:06could well have been the catalyst for the mutiny
10:08that the former soldier said was coming to Putin
10:10if he didn't do something?
10:11We may never know.
10:12And it will be interesting to see
10:14if 11 days of incarceration turns into much more.
10:18Russia has plenty of form
10:19when it comes to disappearing people
10:21who get on Putin's bad side.
10:22There's every chance that Lunin may soon end up
10:25on the wrong side of an open window,
10:27as has happened to so many of those
10:29who have even so much as suggested
10:31that Putin could be removed from power.
10:33Two things are certain in this confusing and chaotic story.
10:36One, Putin has been humiliated
10:38by one of his former soldiers
10:39delivering a call for mutiny
10:41that has been seen by millions of people.
10:43And two, even without the testimonies
10:45that Lunin was attempting to bring to Moscow,
10:47there is plenty of evidence
10:49that exposes the horror of serving in the Russian army.
10:53Abuse runs rampant in Russia's military,
10:55and you don't have to look far to find it,
10:57even without the testimonials
10:59that Lunin claims to have.
11:00As Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty points out,
11:03there have been plenty of past reports
11:04of Russian soldiers
11:05who have been punished
11:06by being held in pits,
11:08cellars,
11:08and other makeshift lockups
11:09if they refuse to go on suicidal assaults
11:12on the front lines of the war.
11:13There have also been reports
11:15that back Lunin's claims
11:16of commanders demanding bribes from soldiers
11:18in exchange for being held back
11:20for the most dangerous offensives.
11:22Some draftees have been reported
11:23as paying up to almost $13,000
11:26to their commanders
11:27so they can avoid combat in Ukraine.
11:29There is a culture of sadism
11:31in the training grounds
11:32of the Russian military,
11:33especially if a soldier
11:34is revealed to be different from the norm.
11:36One former soldier named Artyom Bykov
11:38tells Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty
11:40that he was assigned
11:41to Russia's 273rd Artillery Brigade,
11:44and that training became hell for him
11:46once it was revealed
11:46that he was bisexual.
11:48I was brutally bullied.
11:49They put five bulletproof vests on me.
11:51It was very difficult to walk.
11:53I vomited.
11:54I passed out.
11:54I collapsed.
11:55They put a gas mask on me,
11:57forced me to run, crawl, and so on.
11:59It seemed like hell to me,
12:00but that was only the beginning,
12:01Bykov says,
12:02adding that routine beatings
12:04with sticks and soldiers
12:05having their hands beaten with hammers
12:06or being handcuffed to radiators
12:08were all things that he observed.
12:10Others are less forthright
12:12with the abuse they've suffered,
12:13preferring to remain anonymous
12:14as they deliver their reports.
12:15In a January article,
12:17TVP World reported
12:18that thousands of official complaints
12:20sent to the Kremlin
12:21were inadvertently published online
12:23by Russia's government,
12:25and they aligned with much
12:26of what Bykov claims
12:27and what Lunin says
12:28he wanted to show Putin.
12:30A laundry list of more than 6,000 complaints
12:33to Russia's Human Rights Ombudsman,
12:34which were received
12:35between April and September 2025,
12:38talked of families living in fear
12:40for the lives of the soldiers on the front,
12:42troops being punished
12:43for refusing to go on suicide missions
12:45by being sent into Ukrainian territory
12:47holding Russian flags,
12:49turning them into targets,
12:50and even people in wheelchairs
12:52who were being sent to the front lines
12:53just to soak up more Ukrainian ammunition.
12:56This particular report
12:57adds an interesting wrinkle to the story.
13:00Lunin claimed that a mutiny was coming
13:02and that he wanted to show Putin
13:03the evidence of abuse
13:04so that Russia's leader
13:06could do something about it
13:07before it started.
13:08However, this January report
13:10shows that the Kremlin
13:11has been receiving
13:12plenty of reports of abuse,
13:13thousands in the space of a few months,
13:16and likely many thousands more besides.
13:18What does this show us?
13:20Putin already knows
13:21that the Russian military is abusive,
13:23he just doesn't care.
13:25All of these types of stories
13:26seem to be par for the course
13:27for a military that has relied
13:28as much on brutality and sadism
13:30to get its soldiers onto the front
13:32as it has any sort of alignment
13:34with Putin's vision
13:35for conquering Ukraine.
13:36The Geopolitics and Security Study Center
13:39said back in March 2024
13:40that Russian military culture is
13:43characterized by a high tolerance
13:45for suffering and violence
13:46and that it has been a trait
13:48long before the Ukraine war began.
13:50The idea seems to be
13:51that to commit acts of brutality,
13:53soldiers must be exposed to those acts.
13:55They must be abused themselves.
13:57They must watch as comrades
13:59who refuse orders
13:59or do anything that isn't in line
14:01with what their commanders say
14:02are punished and tortured.
14:04Lunin wasn't going to be delivering
14:05an expose to Putin.
14:07He was just going to be telling Russia's leader,
14:09that his army is working
14:10precisely as intended.
14:12So if none of what Lunin claimed
14:13to want to show Putin
14:14is news to Russia's leader,
14:16then why does it matter at all?
14:17The simple answer to that question
14:19is that Lunin's video
14:20made these abuses public
14:21to people who may never have heard
14:23about them inside Russia
14:24and that demonstrates
14:25that there are soldiers
14:26who have had more than their fill
14:28and are ready to end the war.
14:29A mutiny may well be coming
14:31as war fatigue is leading men like Lunin
14:33to put themselves at risk
14:35by taking desperate measures.
14:37And if Lunin's claims
14:38about being influenced
14:39by defense ministry
14:40and secret service officials are true,
14:42then some of those closest to Putin
14:44may well be experiencing
14:45the same kind of fatigue.
14:47They are looking for a way out.
14:49Dethroning Putin
14:50may be the only option.
14:51Russia's army is exhausted.
14:53Radio Free Europe,
14:54Radio Liberty reports
14:55that there is increasing public debate
14:57within Russia's elite
14:58about whether or not
14:59to stop the war.
15:00Tension is growing.
15:02Putin is even having to deal
15:03with members of the Russian State Duma,
15:05telling him that a revolution
15:06akin to the one seen in 1917 is coming.
15:09That's the message
15:10that the leader of Russia's
15:11Communist Party,
15:12Gennady Zyuganov,
15:13had for Putin back in April
15:15as he warned that the toll
15:16that Putin's war was having
15:17both militarily and economically
15:19could be the end of Putin.
15:21For Russia's leader,
15:22Lunin's words weren't just
15:23the ravings of a man
15:24who had been pushed to the edge.
15:25They were an echo of more refined
15:27but equally dangerous words
15:29that are coming from
15:30some of the most powerful people in Russia.
15:31On the ground,
15:33Russia continues to make
15:34very little progress in Ukraine
15:35and inside Russia,
15:37more drones are flying
15:38into Putin's territory
15:39than ever before
15:40with some reaching as deep as Moscow.
15:42Even Putin himself
15:43has been forced to admit
15:45that fuel shortages
15:46are being caused
15:47by Ukraine's attacks
15:48on Russia's oil infrastructure.
15:49So Lunin may not have led
15:51a Wagner 2.0 style coup himself.
15:54But he has warned of a mutiny
15:55and it's clear
15:56that the attitude toward Putin
15:58and his war
15:58is changing inside Russia.
16:01For a former soldier
16:02to be so public
16:03with their discontent
16:04and to reveal to millions
16:05the abuse that is happening
16:06in the army
16:07is bad enough.
16:08For all of that
16:09to be piled on to division
16:10among the elites
16:11and the evidence
16:12that can no longer be denied
16:13of Russia's failures
16:14on the front
16:14and Ukraine's attacks
16:16inside Russia
16:16is a potential catastrophe for Putin.
16:19Something big
16:20may well be about
16:20to break Putin.
16:21The question now
16:23is whether he'll go out
16:24with a bang
16:24due to a military insurrection
16:26or a whimper
16:27as those working behind the scenes
16:28look to remove him from power.
16:30Either outcome
16:31would work for Ukraine
16:32and Putin is certainly
16:33providing his enemies
16:34with enough rope to hang him.
16:36Beyond the fatigue
16:37and the anger in the military
16:38Putin is leading his country
16:39into economic despair.
16:41There may be no way back
16:42from all of this
16:43for Putin and his regime
16:44and you can find out why
16:46if you watch our video.
16:47And if you enjoyed this video
16:48remember to subscribe
16:49to The Military Show
16:51to see more of our coverage
16:52of the latest developments
16:53inside Russia
16:54that suggest Putin's days
16:56are numbered.
16:57And thank you for watching.
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